Sunday, April 22, 2018

Myers Riders 2013 Varsity Championship

It was a bit of a surprise, and bummer, to read that Myers Riders would not be fielding summer clubs this year.

This club is woefully overlooked and underappreciated. It has been competing at multiple levels for years and usually with great success. Many of its players have gone on pro careers. They get some press, most notably from Tim Baines of the Ottawa Sun, but otherwise go largely ignored by the general public.

The following is a portion of a bio for one of their varsity coaches.
Appeared in the Ontario Varsity Football League Provincial Championships in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, won 2 back to back Provincial Championships in 2013 and 2014, set the record at the Varsity level for being the only team to have appeared in 4 straight Provincial Championships and going undefeated for 3 regular season in a row, as well as breaking 11 all-time offensive records.
At the time that my previous website went tits up (some time in 2013, I believe), I commented that "Myers Riders joined the Ontario Varsity Football League in 2001 after a dominant run in the Ontario Minor Football League at that age group. ...the varsity club is routinely competitive, having yet (unless the gaps in my research prove me wrong) to post a losing record in the OVFL."

We'll focus on the 2013 edition for now and hope for a return in 2019. The photography is from an Ottawa Sun recap, however, but I don't know to whom to give credit.

Niagara Falls Review - There were more than 1,400 fans at Kiwanis Field Saturday night and the Niagara Spears looked like they had everything in place to win the Ontario Varsity Football League championship. 
The Ottawa Myers Riders, howeer, had other plans for who would be wearing the 2013 varsity championship ring. 
... 
The Riders came into the game undefeated at 10-0 and were well worth the price of admission. 
Overall, Riders quarterback Nick Gorgichuk completed 24 passes for 299 yards and three touchdowns, putting an exclamation point on his record-breaking season in which he threw for more than 4,000 yards in just 11 games. 
“This team set 17 OVFL records this year, and he (Gorgichuk) is the best quarterback I have ever seen in this league,” Riders coach Max Palladino said as his team celebrated their first varsity championship. 
... 
The Spears actually went ahead 3-0 on a Michael Domagala field goal to start the game, but the Riders came back with a vengeance, scored three straight touchdowns in the next 12 minutes and surged ahead 21-3. 
The Spears put together a 70-yard drive in the middle of the second quarter and had the crowd and momentum on their side as they looked poised to score. But Spears quarterback Blair Robertson’s pass was intercepted by Riders linebacker Brad Herbst, who ran the ball back 85 yards to give his team a 25-point lead. 
Early in the second half, the Spears didn’t give up and their defence came up big with a two-point safety, which also returned the ball to their offence. The ensuing drive, however, ended in another interception thrown by Robertson. The Riders then put the game away when they took a 23-point lead with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Gorgichuk to wide receiver Kory Morgan
... 
The Scoop 
Spears 20 - Riders 42

St. Catharines Standard Star of the Game: Ottawa quarterback Nick Gorgichuk with 299 passing yards and three touchdown completions. 
... 
For the Myers Riders: Offence: Jonathon Cimankinda, 59 yards rushing and two touchdowns; Kory Morgan, 135 yards receiving and two touchdowns; Jaeger Prot, 24 yards receiving and touchdown; Connor Ayre, six extra-point conversions; Defence: Jordan Gorgichuk, interception; Brad Herbst, interception. 

I was fortunate enough to stumble into a full roster for the team which, apparently, I copied from the OVFL website five years ago. Yay me for thinking ahead! Players in red were all-star team selections.

 1  QB Gorgichuk, Nick     
 2  LB Butler, Justin     
 3  QB Jones, Costa      
 4  DB Laing-Richardson, Cam    
 5  RB Cimankinda, Jonathan    
 6  LB Cimankinda, Alain    
 7  QB Duffy, Matt     
 9  WR Charles, Rouben      
10  WR Krzaniak, Nick     
11  WR Malenfant, Cassidy      
14  DB Jean-Baptiste, Philip   
16  QB Sheahan, Kyle      
19  WR Bradley, Mathieu      
20  DB Gorgichuk, Jordon      
21  DB Smyth, Graham     
22  DB Elliott, Ty     
23  RB Tanti, Keenan     
24  DB Pierce, Daley     
25  WR Taha, Hussein     
26  RB Guest, Andrew     
29  LB Ramos, Vicente    
30  DB Doucette, Jordan  
31  RB Ferron, Jahdel    
32  DB Matthews, Taylor  
33  RB Keenan, Charlie   
34  WR Barrie, Kiell     
35  WR Morgan, Kory      
36  RB Legault, Jacob    
39  RB Moore, Julien     
42  DL Ferris, Scott  
44  DB Henselwood, Mitchell     
45  LB Herbst, Brad      
47  LB Bakshi, Akash      
48  DB Clayton, Jackson      
50  LB Fletcher, Kyrique  
51  LB Bonhomme, Ben      
53  OL Johnson, Will      
54  OL Butt, Kris      
55  OL Scott, Richard    
56  DL Bonifacio, Mark   
57  OL Bolumbe, Gedeon   
58  DL Allarie, John     
59  OL Pisani, Josef     
60  OL Young, Tyler      
61  SB Lachance, Jason   
63  OL Brakus, Andrew    
64  OL Lukusa, Paul     
65  OL Rowlands, Thomas  
67  OL Redmond, Conor  
68  DL Caissie, Paul  
70  PK Ayre, Connor   
73  LB Buckley, Jason 
75  WR Cenatus, Eddy 
76  DL Adams, Brett 
77  SB Prot, Jaegar     
83  SB Trunzo, Vincenzo 
84  SB Papalia, Joseph 
85  DB Pankow, Patrick 
88  DB Urbani, Nicolas 
91  DL Dervisevic, Jasmin 
92  DL Bolton, Parker 
93  DL Parker, Cabe 
99  DL Derdzinski, James

Friday, April 20, 2018

Ken Evraire Named Ottawa Sooners (Semi-Pro) Head Coach


How about that? Evraire did it for the Invaders as a start up organization, now he'll do it for one that's been established for decades.

I'd be curious to know what's being said around the Northern Football Conference.

It's good to see Evraire this invested in the local football scene still. When people discuss the poor management of the Ottawa Rough Riders, you invariably hear about drafting a dead dude and Dexter Manley. But Evraire's handling, as a rising star player, was deplorable and discouraging from a fan's perspective.  Here is his own recollection of the event.
My arrival was simply a settling of accounts with the Ottawa Rough Riders and head coach Steve Goldman. The Riders (had) gone out and spent a lot of money on free agents (Glenn Kulka, David Williams, John Mandarich, Tony Cherry) and the (league) GMs were not tickled to say the least. I had suffered a slight tear in my quad and as luck would have it the Riders tried to hide me by putting me on waivers. No team would want damaged goods or at least that is what the Riders brass thought. With a blink of an eye and a call to the league office, I was claimed by Hamilton.
More of that here.

So yeah. At the time (I don't believe these rules exist anymore) you could recall a player from waivers once...but not twice. The Rough Riders "brain trust" back then, incompetent asses that they were, recalled Evraire once but were unable to do so the second time they put him on waivers so while they thought they were being clever and evaluating interest in him, they accidentally gave him away for nothing.

In his second season with Hamilton (1992), Evraire would snatch 61 passes for 1081 yards and three touchdowns and take the trophy for most outstanding Canadian in the East.

Oops?

Some Rough Rider bungles have become legendary. Those that haven't aren't any less heinous. While defending this fan base prior to the RedBlacks finally becoming a reality, I used to point to the fact that the organization punched itself in the sack for 15 years and averaged 5 wins a season during that period yet still had a hardcore following. That's not a negative, that's an incredible positive that manifested itself when a competent organization was finally delivered to the city.

Sunday, April 15, 2018

1968 Rough Riders

This post is inspired by the following tweet (and Facebook announcement) by the CFL Ottawa Alumni Association.


April 13th was a Friday, but that part is not relevant. ;-)  I'm going to track down the info I had gathered on my previous website about the 1968 team in particular and post it here. The post may be edited in the future if I come across new information.

I will not post the recap that had been included at the time on cfl.ca because it's a little light on details. It just so happens that I copied newspapers articles specific to that game while building the website years ago. I still have them, so I shall copy from them. See below.

In looking for a few more details, I found out that the REDBLACKS actually ran a Throwback Thursday series in early 2014 while leading up the start of their inaugural season. They had a nice graphic for it and everything! Let that be our banner.


Ottawa Rough Riders (9-3-2): 24
Calgary Stampeders (10-6):   21


Ottawa Head coach: Frank Clair
Calgary Head coach: Jerry Williams

                        1 2 3 4 Total

Ottawa Rough Riders 1 3 7 13 24
Calgary Stampeders 0 14 0 7 21

Date: November 30, 1968

Stadium: Exhibition Stadium, Toronto
Most Valuable Player: Vic Washington
Attendance 32,655


I don't recall were I located the information below. Probably from an Ottawa Citizen article from mid-season.

1968 Roster
(as of Aug. 22nd, 1968)

I = Import

##  Pos.  I  Name                    Notes 
11   HB      Ron Stewart             HoF
12   QB      Russ Jackson            HoF
14   DB   *  Don Sutherin            HoF
15   QB   *  Bill Van Burkleo
16   HB   *  Bo Scott
17   DB      Joe Poirier
20   DB      Barry Ardern
21   FB      Wayne Giardino
22   DB      Gene Gaines             HoF
23   FL      Bill Cooper
24   FB      Lovell Coleman
26   HB      Whit Tucker             HoF
27   HB   *  Victor Washington
30   FB      Rick Black
41   LB   *  Ken Lehmann             Most Outstanding Defensive Player
42    C      Jerry Selinger
43    C      Doug Specht
50   LB      Ken Shaw
51   DL   *  Roger Perdrix
52   DL      Jim Cain
53   DT   *  Marshall Shirk
54    G   *  LaVerle Pratt
55    G   *  Dave Braggins
56    G   *  Tom Schuette
60    T   *  Bob Brown
61    T      Tom Beynon
62    T      Moe Racine
63    G   *  Ed Joyner
65   DT   *  Billy Joe Booth
66    T      Doug Collins
71    E      Tom Pullen
73    E   *  Margene Adkins
76    E   *  Jay Roberts
77  DLB   *  Jim Reynolds
##   FL   x  Gino Berretta


LONG PLAY DOES IS AGAIN - Jack Koffman, Ottawa Citizen, December 1st, 1968.

Stymied and almost helpless offensively through the first half, Frank Clair's team changed the entire complexion of the game in the final 30 minutes.

It was a rather gloomy picture for the Ottawa supporters in the first half. Two Calgary fumbles opened the door for the Riders but they kept missing the boat. They could have been leading 14-0 by the end of the first quarter. Instead they trailed 14-4 at the half

The Western champs...stayed alive, though, because Don Sutherin's placement kicking was off target. In four field goal shots he made good on only one....This, couple with a single point on a blocked kick, gave Ottawa an early 4-0 edge.

...In the third period...Riders took over on the Calgary fifty-four and (Russ) Jackson began carrying the ball.

He raced 41, then got a circus catch by (Vic) Washington on a pass to the 15, to set up the first Ottawa TD. Russ himself finally went over from the one.

...Riders hit paydirt suddenly and explosively on the second play of the last quarter.

On a pitchout, Washington dropped the ball and picked it up again on the bounce...He raced down the touchline 79 yards and suddenly Ottawa was ahead.

Later, with five minutes to go, (Margene) Adkins ran a new pattern, cutting across from the right to take Jackson's pass on the Calgary 30 and race for the TD.

The stubborn Ottawa defence held Calgary off for two plays from the six, after a first down, then (Peter) Liske hit (Terry) Evenshen for the major. So only three points...separated the teams with 1:34 to go but Tom Schutte grabbed the short kickoff and that was that the end.


Saturday, April 14, 2018

Ottawa Invaders To Play Under Sooners Brand in 2018

This is an interesting development.



To be entirely honest, I came across this news completely by coincidence. I was actually looking to find out if the Invaders were playing at all this year fully prepared for the news that they would not.

The Ottawa Invaders first took to the field in the summer of 2010 with the goal of providing a place to play for players who had exhausted all amateur options due to age. With former Ottawa Rough Rider Ken Evraire at the helm, they achieved a 3-4-1 record in their inaugural season, then reached the Northern Football Conference championship game in their second and third seasons.

I can't speak to more recent seasons because I was not involved in any way. During the early years however, I managed the team's website and can confidently state that there was no lack of effort from founders James McAllister, Richard Smith II and Erik Faucon. They genuinely wished to emphasize the "pro" aspect of semi-pro football from both an on-field product standpoint and that of the fan experience.

Evraire's high profile, as both a former pro player and a media personality, was difficult to replace following his departure in 2012 and it seemed like the team was far less visible over the past couple of seasons. They remained quite solid on the field though, posting 6-2 and 4-4 records in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Nonetheless, I feared their reduced exposure might hinder their ability to recruit and therefore sustain the team financially so I braced for the possibility that The Invaders might go quietly into that good night.

Thankfully, that doesn't appear to be the case, at least not entirely. We'll find out tomorrow whether their name and logo will remain in circulation beyond this weekend. But the good news is that a post-junior and/or CIS playing option remains available in Ottawa under the guidance of a club that has been in operation since 1960. I can't help but view that as win.

Note: Above photo copied from this nugget.ca article.